Commission: Planning, execution of Greenland drug raid were flawed

CONCORD — An independent commission has determined there were deficiencies in the planning and execution of the April 12 drug raid that led to the death of Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney.

By JIM HADDADINjhaddadin@fosters.com

CONCORD — An independent commission has determined there were deficiencies in the planning and execution of the April 12 drug raid that led to the death of Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney.

At a press conference in Concord on Friday, Attorney General Michael Delaney detailed the findings of a five-member commission that has studied the police operation during the past seven months.

New Hampshire State Police also conducted a thorough investigation of the operation, which was executed by members of the New Hampshire Attorney General's Drug Task Force (DTF).

Made public for the first time on Friday, the State Police investigatory files and the incident review commission's report together provide a “comprehensive accounting” of the tragedy in Greenland, Delaney said.

In an introductory passage, the authors of the report praise the law enforcement officers involved in the operation for their actions immediately following the call of “shots fired,” calling them “nothing less than heroic.”

Investigators say 29-year-old Cullen Mutrie, a suspected drug dealer, opened fire on a team of six Drug Task Force officers as they attempted to search his home at 517 Post Road.

Four officers were shot in rapid succession. Maloney was then shot through a basement window while he was leaning over the side of his cruiser, which was parked in front of the home.

“Your immediate response to one another could only be described as both brave and courageous,” the report states. “Those efforts to render first aid, find cover positions and to summon help were remarkable when considering the hostile environment all of you found yourselves in. We have no doubt each of your actions during these tragic moments saved lives.”

Police were searching for evidence of cocaine and the prescription painkiller oxycodone when they arrived at his home, according to court documents. Police were also carrying a warrant to arrest Brittany Tibbetts, a 26-year-old Maine resident who was his alleged accomplice in drug sales.

Mutrie eventually killed himself and shot Tibbetts dead in the midst of a lengthy standoff with police, investigators have ruled.

In its report, the Greenland Incident Review Commission highlighted a range of concerns around the DTF operation, including the decision to forcibly gain entry to the home without the assistance of a better-equipped tactical team.

Given the nature of the threat posed by Mutrie, a trained tactical team should have been called in once police decided to break down the door, the review commission determined.

A tactical team would have been equipped with gear including rifles, level three tactical body armor, ballistic helmets, individual medical trauma kits attached to uniforms, portable radios with microphones for everyone in the operation, and ballistic shields, Delaney said.

The review commission characterized the decision to make a forcible entry as a “last minute plan.”

It also noted a gap in the planning for the operation: Police knew how they were going to respond if Mutrie wouldn't come out of the house, but they hadn't prepared for a scenario in which it was unclear whether Mutrie was home.

The commission also drew attention to the fact that at the time of the drug search, the Drug Task Force did not have a policy in place requiring officers to use a threat-assessment tool to gauge the risk posed by a suspect.

Such a tool lays out risk factors objectively, and asks police to assign numerical values to each risk factor. A score above a certain threshold immediately deems a search warrant to be “high-risk,” requiring the assistance of a tactical team.

The Attorney General's Drug Task Force did not have a policy in place on April 12 that utilized such a tool in the field, according to Delaney.

The review commission characterized the operations plan, the tool used to prepare for the event, as “lacking sufficient detail.” The commissioners noted the absence of portable radios in the possession of DTF detectives on scene, who only had Nextel mobile phones.

The review commission also noted that during the debriefing prior to the execution of the search warrant, the DTF didn't have access to a layout of the interior of the home. The review commission found the layout would have been readily available to them.

The commission also critiqued the date and time the search took place. The commission noted the absence or unavailability of supervisory command staff at the time.

On April 12, the senior commander of the Drug Task Force -- assigned to the Concord headquarters, and directly supervising the DTF Seacoast team -- was on vacation, and had no knowledge the search warrant was being executed in Greenland, according to Delaney.

The Seacoast DTF team leader was assigned to a protection detail for an appearance by Vice President Joe Biden in Exeter on April 12. He arrived late to the briefing that took place immediately before police staged the Greenland drug raid, which took place at about 5:30 p.m. The team leader did participate in the planning of the operation, and he was part of the team that attempted to enter the home.

The assistant team leader was not scheduled to participate in the event. He was off-duty on April 12, and was in Massachusetts on vacation at the time.

“Therefore, we had a situation where the commander in Concord, the team leader in the Seacoast, and the ... assistant team leader were unavailable, and the review commission questioned why the event had to occur on that date," Delaney said.

The warrants to search Mutrie's house and arrest Tibbetts were obtained on April 9. Under state law, police had another four days to conduct the operation before they would have expired, according to Delaney.

The commission also questioned why the search took place at 6 p.m., in the early evening. Searching the house at a different time might have minimized lighting issues.

“Many of the officers could only see a very dark room with a silhouette prior to the gunshots being fired," Delaney said, "and they [the commissioners] felt that a different time may have minimized the silhouetting that the officers received when they faced the threat from Mutrie."

In addition, while two members of the Seacoast DTF team have extensive tactical training, the commission recommended additional training for all members of the team involved in the operation.

The report also calls into question the structure of leadership within the Attorney General's Drug Task Force. The commission found that "clear and unambiguous lines of authority and responsibility," did not previously exist within DTF.

The DTF consists of four distinct teams, and leaders of those teams exercise differing levels of influence over operations, according to the commission. Some are very hands-on, and others delegate "significant responsibility and influence to team members," according to the report.

"The policies and procedures provided to DTF members do not clearly outline a chain of command and the requisite areas of responsibility for each position within the organization," the report states.

It continues: "Absent are clear written policies and enforcement of those policies. As a result, team members are granted license to develop their own methods of operation which exposes the entire organization to unacceptable levels of inconsistency and therefore risk and liability."

Delaney announced Friday that he has accepted all findings of the Greenland Incident Review Commission's report, and will implement the report's recommendations in full.

New Hampshire State Police Captain Scott Sweet was hired in October as the new commander of the Drug Task Force, according to Delaney. Sweet has already overseen the implementation of numerous recommendations from the report, according to information provided by the attorney general's office.

Among those changes are a new policy regarding the service of warrants, and the adoption of a "Warrant Risk Assessment (WRA) matrix," to assess suspects targeted in DTF operations. Command-level approval is now required for all warrants, according to the AG's office.

The practice of executing "no knock" search warrants without a tactical team has been suspended, and the DTF commander or his designees are now responsible for requesting SWAT team assistance when necessary.

New gear has also been purchased, including ballistic vests and first aid kits for undercover vehicles.

DTF officers are now required to use the portable radios assigned to the team or radios loaned to them from municipal police departments during the execution of arrest and search warrants, according to the AG's office.